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Imagine having a camera so powerful that it can take free-motion photos of moving electrons-an object moving so fast that it can orbit the earth many times in a second. Researchers at the University of Arizona have developed the world’s fastest electron microscope that can do this.
They believe that their work will bring breakthrough progress in fields such as physics, chemistry, bioengineering, and materials science.
“When you get the latest version of a smartphone, it’s equipped with a better camera,” says Mohammed Hassan, associate professor of physics and optical sciences.
“This transmission electron microscope is like a very powerful camera in the latest version of smartphones; it allows us to take pictures of things we couldn’t see before-such as electrons. Through this microscope, we hope that the scientific community can understand the quantum physics behind electron behavior and electron motion.
Hassan led a research team from the Department of Physical and Optical Sciences to publish the research article “Attosecond Electron Microscopy and Diffraction” in the journal Science Advances.
Hassan worked with Nikolay Golubev, assistant professor of physics. Hui Dandan, co-first author and former researcher in optics and physics, currently working at the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, China Academy of Sciences; Husain Alqattan, co-lead author, alumni of the University of Alberta and assistant professor of physics at the University of Kuwait; and Mohamed Sennary, a graduate student in optics and physics.
Transmission electron microscopes are tools used by scientists and researchers to magnify objects to millions of times their actual size in order to see small details that cannot be detected by traditional light microscopes.
Transmission electron microscopy does not use visible light, but instead directs an electron beam through any sample being studied. The interaction between the electrons and the sample is captured by the lens and detected by the camera sensor to produce a detailed image of the sample.
Ultrafast electron microscopes using these principles were first developed in the 2000s and use lasers to generate pulsed electron beams. This technology greatly improves the microscope’s temporal resolution, the ability to measure and observe changes in samples over time.
In these ultrafast microscopes, the resolution of the transmission electron microscope is determined by the duration of the electron pulse, rather than relying on the speed of the camera shutter to determine image quality.
The faster the pulse, the better the image.
Ultrafast electron microscopes used to operate by emitting a series of electron pulses at a rate of a few attoseconds. Ato second is one billionth of a second. The pulses of these speeds produce a series of images, like the dots in the movie, but scientists still miss the reactions and changes that occur as electrons evolve instantaneously between these dots.
To observe electrons frozen in place, researchers at the University of Alberta generated for the first time a single attosecond electron pulse that moved as fast as the electrons moved, improving the microscope’s temporal resolution, much like a high-speed camera captures motion as it would otherwise be invisible.
The work of Hassan and his colleagues, based on the Nobel Prize-winning achievements of Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huilliere, won the Physics Novel Prize in 2023 after producing the first extremely short pulse of extreme ultraviolet radiation.
Based on this work, researchers at the University of Alberta have developed a microscope in which powerful laser light is split and converted into two parts-a very fast electron pulse and two ultrashort light pulses. The first light pulse (called a pump pulse) injects energy into the sample and causes electrons to move or undergo other rapid changes.
The second light pulse, also known as an “optical gating pulse”, acts like a gate by creating a short window of time in which a gated single attosecond electron pulse is produced. Therefore, the speed of the strobe determines the resolution of the image. By carefully synchronizing the two pulses, researchers can control when the electronic pulse probes the sample to observe ultrafast processes at the atomic level.
“People have long been expected to increase the temporal resolution inside electron microscopes, and this is the focus of many research groups because we all want to see electrons in motion,” Hassan said.
“These movements occur in atseconds. But now, for the first time, we are able to achieve attosecond temporal resolution using an electron transmission microscope, which we call an “atomic microscope.” This is the first time we have seen electronic fragments in motion.
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Original text:https://phys.org/news/2024-08-world-fastest-microscope-electrons-motion.html
More information: Dandan Hui et al, Attosecond electron microscopy and diffraction, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp5805. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp5805
More information: Dandan Hui et al., Attosecond electron microscopy and diffraction, Advances in Science (2024). DOI：10.1126/sciadv.adp5805 。www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp5805
Journal information: Science Advances
Journal Information: Scientific Advances
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